In Libya especially in Benghazi, Zummita is a traditional Libyan food consisting of 85% whole barley flour and is commonly consumed as a breakfast meal, and. Due to an increase in Type 2 diabetes and a lack of information on the effects of Zummita consumption on glycemic response, this study was performed to determine the glycemic index (GI) of Zummita. Fasted healthy subjects (6 males and 6 females) volunteered to consume either glucose or Zummita. The blood glucose concentrations were analyzed using capillary blood samples immediately before, 30, 60, 90 and 120 min after glucose or Zummita consumption. The GI value of Zummita was calculated by expressing the incremental area under the blood glucose response curve (IAUC) value for Zummita as a percentage of each subject’s average IAUC value for the glucose. The GI value of Zummita was found as 46.90 ± 7.56. This result indicates that Zummita should be classified as low GI food. More importantly, our result provides the GI value of a Libyan traditional food which was not determined previously. This valuable information will be significant for management and the prevention of diabetes mellitus in Libya and other countries having similar food tradition.

Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) is known as phenylthiourea and it is an organic compound that has the phenyl ring. Ability to perceive the tastes of PTC chemical is related to the dominance of taste genes. There are a large number of population studies regarding the PTC taste perception and different personal characteristics or disease conditions. The purpose of this study is to reveal and compare the relation between the PTC taste perception and work-out habits, smoking, alcohol consumption and tendency to the depression of people. A total of 2500 adults were volunteered to be included in this study. PTC taste perception was measured by tasting with PTC solution (10 mg/L) filtered in a paper. It showed that tasters were significantly more frequent (81.8%) than nontasters (18.2%) in all population. And in some parameters analyzed in this study, there are significant differences. The taste genetics show up with environmental factors and create the sense of taste, which develops the feeding behaviors. The taste perception resulting from food and beverages diversifies by genetic and environmental effects and the nervous system interprets this perception. This study is enlightening in terms of presenting that the taste perception of people affects their lifestyles and lead them to start and either continue or discontinue some habits.

Nowadays, depending on the progress of science and technology, our eating habits have changed. The shape and quality of nutrition is important for human health. Especially, some food components have various effect on central nervous system such as depression, anxiety, sleep, appetite. Food constituents are transported into the central nervous system via the neutral amino acids such as phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine, tyrosine and valine. Amino acids have an important role in human nutrition. It cannot be synthesized in the body and one of the essential amino acids that must be taken outside, trytophan, is indispensable in human nutrition because of it has the many functions. In recent years, scientific community concentrated on the various functions of L-Trytophan (L-Trp) as pioneer in the secretion of the hormones serotonin and melatoninin in the human body. The hormones serotonin and melatonin is responsible for activities such as psychology, sleep, body temperature, blood pressure balance, antioxidant effect, cancer inhibitor, sexuality, autism and circadian rhythms in human body that they are available in various foods such as milk, kefir, yogurt, orange, strawberry, grape, olive oil, walnut, prune, nut, pomegranate, coffee, kiwi and banana. In this study, L-Trp, serotonin and melatonin biosynthesis and metabolism, food profiles and in terms of their physiological and biological effects on human health has been compiled.

Modelling is carried out for eleven major weeds in cucumber to develop estimated models for weed emergence time. Weed species were grouped according to their emergence patterns. Amaranthus retroflexus, Chenopodium album, Heliotropium europaeum, Polygonum aviculare and Solanum nigrum were early emerging, Convolvulus arvensis, Cyperus rotundus, Cynodon dactylon, Portulaca oleracea and Sorghum halepense were season long emerging Tribulus terrestris was the late emerging weed species. Different non-linear growth curves (Chapman-Richard, Weibull, logistic, Gompertz and cubic spline) fitted to the data of cumulative percent emergence for the different species and years. Cubic spline seemed the best model for many species.

Sorghum and millet are important food staples in semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa. Sorghum and millet are cereal grains that have prospective to be used as substitute to wheat flour for celiac patients. These are considered as the good source of many important and essential fatty acids. The volatile profiling of these two important crops is comparable to other cereals as well. The present study was an effort to explore biochemical composition of commercially available sorghum and millet varieties with special reference to their fatty acid and volatile profiling. Chemical composition of sorghum and millet was determined according to respective methods. Fatty acid methyl esters were prepared and then subjected to GC-FID for fatty acids analysis. The results indicated that both sorghum and millet oils are rich in essential fatty acids comprising mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Main fatty acids that are identified in current study includes palmitic acid, oleic acid, palmitoleic acid, behenic acid, linoleic acid, linoleic acid, stearic acid, myristic acid, etc. On the other hand volatile compounds from sorghum and millet were determined by preparing their respective volatile samples by using calvenger apparatus with suitable volatile extracting solvent. Volatile samples were then subjected to GC-MS analysis and respected results were compared with NIST library. About 30 different volatiles were identified in millet varieties while 35 different compounds were discovered in sorghum varieties belonging to aldehydes, ketones, benzene derivatives, esters, alcohols, sulphur compounds.

In Afghanistan food safety is managed by several ministries including Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce and municipalities. There is no food law but multiple ministerial decrees which ensure if GMP is implemented well. There is no legal requirement to get food safety certification. Hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) is recognized as a key part of food safety management practice in the global food industry and can be applied at any stage of the food supply chain. This article discusses accepted approaches to the application of HACCP principles for the development, implementation, and maintenance of HACCP plan. It is intended as an introduction to food safety system in Afghanistan, giving propositions to government on how to apply the principles in a stepwise approach, and showing how HACCP benefit public and private sector and also suggesting ways how to adapt this approach in the food businesses.

In this study, the effect of using gamma irradiated barley and wheat 0, 10 and 100 kiloGray (kGy) and enzyme supplementation on the egg product criterions and external and internal egg quality was examined. In this experiment, 36 weeks old, 324 Brown Nick laying hens were used for ten week. The study was a randomized complete block design with 9 dietary treatments within 6 blocks of 54 pens each 6 birds per pen. Although egg weight was not significantly affected by gamma irradiation; enzyme supplementation of barley based diet significantly increased egg weight compared to barley control group. As egg mass production was considered, enzyme and 100 kGy gamma irradiation significantly improved the egg mass production compared to barley control. The feed conversion ratio was significantly improved by using gamma irradiated barley and enzyme in barley based diets (P

The present work was conducted in the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Food science department, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, University of Kordofan, in order to evaluate some nontraditional oil seeds these are i.e. Marula (Sclerocarya birrea), Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) seeds and Christ’s thorn (Zizyphus spina-christi) seeds. The seeds of the roselle and Christ’s thorn fruits were procured from Elobeid local market, North Kordofan State, while marula fruits were obtained from Elnuhod, West Kordofan State. The proximate composition of the seeds, cake and christ’s thorn pulp was done. Some chemical and physical properties were performed for the extracted oil. The results revealed that proximate composition of the seeds and cake differ statistically among the studied materials. Significant differences were observed among the oil extracted from these species; moreover, these oils differ significantly in color and viscosity only.

Mycotoxin occurrence in foods, especially in uncontrolled produced traditional foods causes serious health problems. In this study, traditional Küp cheese samples were collected from different part of Anatolian region in Turkey (Ankara, Nevşehir and Yozgat) and analyzed to determine Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) level. AFM1 analysis was carried out by, immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) attached with fluorescence detector (FL) The level of AFM1 in all samples was in the range of 16 and 136 ng/kg which is lower than the maximum tolerance limit of the Turkish Codex Regulations (250 ng/kg). The levels of contamination indicated that more detailed and continuous monitoring is required to increase the public health conscious and reduce consumers’ exposure to AFM1.

Modelling is carried out for eleven major weeds in cucumber to develop estimated models for weed emergence time. Weed species were grouped according to their emergence patterns. Amaranthus retroflexus, Chenopodium album, Heliotropium europaeum, Polygonum aviculare and Solanum nigrum were early emerging, Convolvulus arvensis, Cyperus rotundus, Cynodon dactylon, Portulaca oleracea and Sorghum halepense were season long emerging Tribulus terrestris was the late emerging weed species. Different non-linear growth curves (Chapman-Richard, Weibull, logistic, Gompertz and cubic spline) fitted to the data of cumulative percent emergence for the different species and years. Cubic spline seemed the best model for many species.